Missouri farmers now have to tag dairy cattle | News

(KFVS) - On Monday many sale barn owners found out about new federal tagging requirements.

Handed down by the United States Department of Agriculture, the regulations require livestock owners to obtain veterinary inspection, register and tag certain animals that will be shipped out of state. The idea is to make it easier to trace animal ownership.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture says:

"In January 2013, the USDA published a final rule establishing regulations for improving disease traceability of U.S. livestock moving interstate. As a leading state for producing high quality livestock, it is vital that Missouri producers, livestock markets, veterinarians and others in the livestock industry be aware of the new regulations and apply them throughout the state. The regulations include:

• For beef and dairy cattle moving into Missouri from other states, no changes to existing rules are needed because Missouri requirements already met or exceeded the new Federal requirements related to disease traceability.
• For beef cattle moving within the state, no changes to existing rules are needed because Missouri requirements already met or exceeded the new Federal requirements related to disease traceability.
• All dairy females sold interstate must be officially identified through a licensed veterinarian and listed individually on a certificate of veterinary inspection.
• All dairy males born after March 11, 2013 being sold interstate must be officially identified through a licensed veterinarian and a certificate of veterinary inspection."

Speaker Pro Tem Jason Smith says it will cost between $3 to $5 to tag each animal under the new requirements. He says animals will need to be run through chutes at the sale barn to put the tags in place, which may cause a cow to lose as much as 25 pounds of weight.

According to Smith, when you add up the total weight lost for a semi-truck load of cattle being tagged the final dollar amount lost can be as much as $3,500.

For more information, you can click here to visit the MDA online.

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